Squirrel Could Stymie Developers

November 14, 1999|By DAVID FLESHLER Staff Writer

At the edge of a forest of slash pines and cypress, a large red squirrel with a huge, bushy tail leaps from branch to branch. It pauses on the way down a trunk, its face twitching as it gazes at a human observer. It scampers down the tree and vanishes into the woods.

The Big Cypress fox squirrel, probably wiped out years ago in Broward County, now exists only in shrinking pockets of South Florida. Forced to roam over a wide area in search of food, the squirrels have been dying out as their forest habitat is carved into golf courses and strip malls.

A Hollywood couple, joining with the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, petitioned the federal government to declare the squirrel a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The designation would immediately give the government a larger role in regulating development in its habitat, centered in fast-growing Lee and Collier counties. And it could set up a clash between the federal government and the region's builders.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has moved the petition one step up the approval ladder, issuing a formal finding in September that it may be warranted to list the squirrel as a threatened species. Within a month, the service is expected to issue its recommendation, with final action at least a year away.

No one knows how many of the squirrels exist. Biologists and environmental groups agree there are fewer than ever before, but the subspecies' decline has not brought the sort of attention that goes to the state's more-glamorous wildlife.

"Everyone's on panthers, American crocodiles, the real high-profile species, " said Brian Scherf, who signed the petition with his wife, Rosalyn. "A lot of these other species get overlooked, the little guys like the salamanders, the frogs. All these big environmental groups want to have a picture of a panther on their fund-raising brochure. They would never have a picture of a frog or a fox squirrel. But biodiversity comes in many sizes and shapes."

The Fish and Wildlife Service has extended federal protection to 46 animals in Florida. The list includes such fauna as the key deer and the West Indian manatee, as well as creatures that are unlikely ever to have their own license plate, such as the Anastasia Island beach mouse and the bluetail mole skink.

The case for adding the squirrel to the list appears in a 64-page petition drafted by the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, a Colorado-based group that has pushed for the protection of the flatwoods salamander, Atlantic salmon and Preble's meadow jumping mouse.

"It's an amazing critter that's in real trouble," said Sidney Maddock, environmental analyst for the foundation. "It's aesthetically a beautiful species. It's an indicator, to some degree, of the health of the habitat in southwest Florida -- the fragmentation of habitat, the lack of fire, the destruction of habitat."

Fox squirrels require enormous territories. A gray squirrel may live its entire life around a few trees. But a fox squirrel will roam over 700 acres or more in search of pine nuts, palmetto berries, fig seeds, acorns, fungi and holly fruit. The trees and shrubbery of southwest Florida bear fruits and seeds at different times of the year, and the squirrels are forced to travel long distances for what they need.

"It's a tough life," said Stephen Humphrey, dean of the College of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Florida. "Habitat is obviously not great for them. They adapt to it by traveling long distances and having very large home ranges. That kind of resilience depends on a very extensive, connected habitat. There have been lots of developments, converting habitat to urban and suburban uses."

The squirrels live in forests and tree stands around the large, protected public lands of southwest Florida, such as the Big Cypress Preserve, the Fakahatchee Strand and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. They also live on the private ranches and farms that are quickly being developed.

Southwest Florida is now the fastest-growing part of the state. Each new golf course, citrus grove and housing development threatens to chop the squirrels' habitat into smaller pieces. Already biologists have seen populations of the squirrels vanish.

The squirrels live most of their lives on the ground, preferring forests without dense underbrush so they can find food and avoid bobcats, hawks and other predators.

While poaching occasionally takes place, state law prohibits the hunting of the squirrels.

Designating a new protected species in such a fast-growing area probably would provoke opposition from developers.

"Although we don't know if it's going to be listed, the service anticipates opposition due to the locality of the species," said Grant Webber, the biologist at the Fish and Wildlife Service who is taking the lead on the application.